1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic telephone answering apparatus and, more particularly, to an automatic telephone apparatus for detecting the presence/absence of an incoming message of a calling party and controlling a recording time of a recording means such as an incoming message tape.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An automatic telephone answering apparatus is automatically engaged with a telephone line upon reception of an incoming call, sends out an outgoing message to a calling party, and drives a recording unit to record an incoming message of the calling party. Thereafter, the automatic telephone answering apparatus is set in the standby mode. In a conventional automatic telephone answering apparatus, a drive time of a recording unit is limited by a timer or the like to a predetermined period of time. In another conventional apparatus, a speech control circuit such as an analog switch is operated to detect whether or not an incoming message is received from a calling party. When an incoming message is no longer detected and a blank portion continues, the speech control circuit detects that the incoming message is ended to disable the recording means and sets the automatic telephone answering apparatus in the standby mode. However, according to this system for controlling the recording time by the speech control circuit, when a calling party stops speaking during recording for a short period of time, the speech control circuit is operated to set the automatic telephone answering apparatus in the standby mode, resulting in inconvenience. However, when a blank time interval for actuating the speech control circuit is prolonged, the speech control circuit detects a busy tone or a dial tone after a calling party finishes recording a message. As a result, the automatic telephone answering apparatus cannot be set in the standby mode even if a message of a calling party is completely recorded, resulting in inconvenience.